On the occasion of Women’s Rights Equality Day on 25th August, we would like you to note the harassment and arrests of 1,15,645 women in India in last 4 years under dowry laws (section 498a) without trial or any investigation. This is the worst kind of shameful atrocities committed on women by a nation whose president herself is a woman. Thousands of women are dragged to police stations, harassed, threatened, blackmailed and finally arrested every month. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must intervene immediately to stop these atrocities on women as the other concerned ministers have failed to address this serious issue.
It is ironic that women are the worst victims of the misuse of dowry laws and all these women are considered “guilty till proven innocent”, which is against the cardinal principles of natural justice. Arrested women include elderly women as old as 92 years to pregnant women to minor girl child going to schools. Is this women’s empowerment?
Hearing our vociferous outrage through protests all over India, Renuka Choudhary, Minister for Women and Children of India invited our representations for discussions on June 25th 2008. We hoped that some common sense will prevail and the arrests will end. All the discussions between our representatives and Renuka Choudhary failed as the minister refused to give any commitments towards stopping these atrocities on innocent women.
It is a national shame that so many women are arrested by laws which are meant to protect women. It is like the fence eating the crop. It’s a pity to note that this destruction of families is happening under the patronage of the Indian Legal System in the barb and paradoxical veil of “Women Empowerment and Protection”.
Although drafted with the sanest of intentions; to provide women with security in a marriage, of late, due to the large number of false cases making their way to courts, the protector’s shield has become the assassin’s weapon. The women NGOs also, who are supposed to be working as watchdogs, have turned into bloodhounds by discriminating between women related to husbands and wives and failing to recognize, empathize and redress the grievances of those fateful mothers and sisters who have been through the ordeal of seeing their son and brother suffering at the hands of an unjust and almost defunct legal system.
Save Indian Family Foundation, an international network of individuals and NGOs, is working for promotion of Gender Equality and Family Harmony, makes a pleading before your Excellency/good office on behalf of the bereaved and beleaguered mothers and sisters, victimized under false allegations of dowry harassment by their daughters –in – law and their advisors/parents, to kindly look into this matter. One complaint from the daughter –in – law lands the whole family including ailing senior citizens, minor children, as well as pregnant women behind bars and ruins their life in a whiff of a moment. All this happens without investigation and in most of the cases, hefty ransoms are demanded to settle the case.
As per National Crime Records Bureau, in the last 4 years, (2004 – 2007), 1, 15, 645 innocent women have been arrested without investigation / trial under 498A cases.
1) Is this women empowerment- that on an unverified complaint of one woman, three women are imprisoned (on an average) and deemed “Guilty until proven innocent”?
2) Umpteen numbers of cases have been found where the girls’ side, filing such complaints were found to be hiding vital facts about the girl and they in fact file these cases when the hidden facts(affairs, diseases, unnatural tendencies and preferences, etc.) are exposed. Has 498A been designed to seek revenge from and harass husband’s family legally?
3) Is the pain of a mother / sister less when she loses a son / brother than when she loses a daughter / sister?
4) As per suicide statistics provided by National Crime Records Bureau, for the years 2005 and 2006, close to 52, 483 and 55, 452 married men, respectively, have committed suicide as opposed to 28, 188 and 29, 869 married women. But yet there is no law to protect our brothers and sons. Why?
5) According to a report by Center for Social Research, there is only 2 % conviction in 498a cases, which means the law is misused to the tune of 98 % and yet it has not been scrapped. This clearly shows the inaction of the government and the apathy meted out to men and their family members, be it a man or a woman in India.
Today on Women’s Rights Equality Day we demand that,
1) Minister of Women and Child Development, Renuka Choudhary should resign having failed miserably in protecting the 1, 15, 645 women arrested without trial / investigation in cases under Section 498A IPC and Jayaprada be made the minister for Women and Child Development.
2) Mothers and sisters of men too are given equal status and their grievances as women are also heard and redressed by State Women Commissions as well as National Commission for Women and the Women and Child Development Ministry.
3) We demand that all cases registered under 498A be properly investigated by a police officer of the level of DCP before making any arrests or registering any complaint the police has written permission from the DCP- in compliance with 1994 Supreme Court Judgment 1994 AIR 1349 SCC (4) 260 Joginder Kumar vs. UOI. It is to be understood that 498a is a serious criminal offense and registering a criminal offense against any person without investigation can lead to serious degradation of the person’s social reputation and irreparable damage to life and career, apart from unfathomable human rights violation and wastage of governmental resources and hence public’s money.
4) Such acts need strong condemnation and the perpetrators of false cases need to be severely punished as they are maligning the system and blocking the path of justice for genuine victims. The State should initiate prosecution suo motu against those found to be misusing laws affecting families and filing false cases under Dowry Harassment laws and Domestic Violence just to realize their personal vendetta.
5) The words man / woman be replaced by person and the words Husband / wife be replaced by spouse to make the laws gender neutral.
6) Our brothers and sons should also get a chance to redress their woes of Domestic Violence by allowing them to make complaints under Domestic Violence Act 2005 amending it to make it gender neutral.
Gender Equality cannot come by way of Gender Discrimination and stereotyped, anachronous and generalised assumptions, which can only help to undermine the spirit and definition of any law. Taking the statements of the girl’s side as “Gospel Truth” reflects sheer lack of jurisprudence and grave inefficiency in implementation of laws on the government’s part, which needs to be rectified with immediate effect so that innocent law abiding citizens do not become a victim of the system made to protect them.
Place: Bangalore Thanking You
Date: 25 August 2008
(Save Indian Family Foundation)
www.saveindianfamily.org
www.savefamily.org
9342853272
9845143724
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Yes I demanded dowry, but never got it
All the characters referred to below are fictitious and bear no resemblance with anyone living or dead whatsoever. Any co-incidence is purely co-incidental and unintentional.
Dowry? A sensational word, isn’t it? Evokes strong emotions for the ‘married woman’. Unlawful demands from the husband’s side to the bride’s side like a scooter, car, fridge, cash, jewels, etc. etc. Seems like a scene straight from a social cinema, depicting the ‘married woman’ as a liability. This is what the media has always represented dowry and dowry seeking money mongers as, and so this is what the society has come to know of it.
But the definition of dowry is far wider than that entailed above as put in Indian Penal Code Section 498A as any ‘unlawful demand’ made by husband and / or his relatives. But what is ‘unlawful’ has not been described. It has been left to anyone’s imagination and depends on the intensity of the ‘married woman’s’ tears at time of the complaint.
The other day I happened to meet Jignesh, who has been accused under section 498A for allegedly making ‘unlawful demand’ to his wife. So I happened to chat with him as to what was the need to make any ‘unlawful demand’ from his wife when he himself earned a handsome salary working with an MNC at a prestigious position? Excerpts of my chat with him,
Me: “Well sad to know that you are facing criminal charges, but I fail to understand that when you are yourself so well placed, what made you demand?”
Jignesh: “So you seem to have decided the verdict yourself as is evident from your question.”
Me: “Hey man, I did not mean that.”
Jignesh: “It’s OK, am used to it, but it is a truth that I demanded dowry from her. You heard it right, Yes I demanded dowry but never got it.”
Me: “I see. Do you mind sharing your demands?”
Jignesh: “Not at all. I demanded our cultural values from her; I demanded as much respect from her for my parents, as I have for her parents. I demanded support from her to build my family. I demanded a feeling of oneness with contemporaries and love for the young ones in our family. I demanded restraint and patience to understand each other to build a stronger familial foundation. I demanded an anticipated expectation to be as much loyal and faithful to me as I am to her. Since she and her parents, especially her mom did not have all these, they thought these demands were ‘unlawful ‘, and filed a case on me and my innocent family under Section 498A IPC.”
Me: “I see. Hats off to you and sorry once again for that question, it was just framed badly, not intended that way.”
Jignesh: “That is fine; this is the pill society gives to victims of 498A, the Anti – dowry law. But I have no qualms in saying that I demanded dowry, for if what I demanded amounts to dowry in today’s era of Woman Protection and Woman Empowerment, then so be it. After all times are changing. Definitions of 1960 cannot work today.”
Dowry? A sensational word, isn’t it? Evokes strong emotions for the ‘married woman’. Unlawful demands from the husband’s side to the bride’s side like a scooter, car, fridge, cash, jewels, etc. etc. Seems like a scene straight from a social cinema, depicting the ‘married woman’ as a liability. This is what the media has always represented dowry and dowry seeking money mongers as, and so this is what the society has come to know of it.
But the definition of dowry is far wider than that entailed above as put in Indian Penal Code Section 498A as any ‘unlawful demand’ made by husband and / or his relatives. But what is ‘unlawful’ has not been described. It has been left to anyone’s imagination and depends on the intensity of the ‘married woman’s’ tears at time of the complaint.
The other day I happened to meet Jignesh, who has been accused under section 498A for allegedly making ‘unlawful demand’ to his wife. So I happened to chat with him as to what was the need to make any ‘unlawful demand’ from his wife when he himself earned a handsome salary working with an MNC at a prestigious position? Excerpts of my chat with him,
Me: “Well sad to know that you are facing criminal charges, but I fail to understand that when you are yourself so well placed, what made you demand?”
Jignesh: “So you seem to have decided the verdict yourself as is evident from your question.”
Me: “Hey man, I did not mean that.”
Jignesh: “It’s OK, am used to it, but it is a truth that I demanded dowry from her. You heard it right, Yes I demanded dowry but never got it.”
Me: “I see. Do you mind sharing your demands?”
Jignesh: “Not at all. I demanded our cultural values from her; I demanded as much respect from her for my parents, as I have for her parents. I demanded support from her to build my family. I demanded a feeling of oneness with contemporaries and love for the young ones in our family. I demanded restraint and patience to understand each other to build a stronger familial foundation. I demanded an anticipated expectation to be as much loyal and faithful to me as I am to her. Since she and her parents, especially her mom did not have all these, they thought these demands were ‘unlawful ‘, and filed a case on me and my innocent family under Section 498A IPC.”
Me: “I see. Hats off to you and sorry once again for that question, it was just framed badly, not intended that way.”
Jignesh: “That is fine; this is the pill society gives to victims of 498A, the Anti – dowry law. But I have no qualms in saying that I demanded dowry, for if what I demanded amounts to dowry in today’s era of Woman Protection and Woman Empowerment, then so be it. After all times are changing. Definitions of 1960 cannot work today.”
Save the Society
1 in 6 persons in Delhi is Likely to face 498a (Dowry) Law soon, which is not simple as Law is arrest without investigations, non Bailable.
Ministry of Women and child development is currently in the process of talking to organizations fighting to stop misuse of Dowry and other women protection Laws. Some of these groups are demanding that Section 498a, Indian Penal Code (Dowry Law) should be applicable only to husbands and not to his relatives; also it should be made non - cognizable so that arrests are made only after investigations. Recently Gender Human Rights Society Regd. was called on 1st Aug, and on 18th Aug MASI (Mothers and sisters Initiative Regd.) a women organization fighting for preventing misuse of women protection Laws is invited.
Some foreign (UNAID) funded Women organizations are writing to ministry that ministry should not talk to men organizations for reasons best known to them. They do not want a balanced family system to exist in India as it is the greatest impediment to their impeachment policies aimed at large scale destruction of Indian society and culture. Whereas non funded organizations like Gender Human Rights society Regd. strongly say the demand that ministry should not talk to men is absurd, and a foreign trick to harm India. Marriage is a social institution run by both men and women and hence the views of both the sides need to be taken into due consideration.
With 1 in 6 persons in Delhi alone likely to face 498a (Dowry LAW) complaint, the arrest without investigation, non Bailable can lead to mass misuse of law and legal terrorism unleashed on them. A significant population is already suffering, and all over India non funded organizations are being formed to amend this Law as the government has turned its blind eye and deaf ear to the sufferings of lacs of people suffering from misuse of dowry related and other women protection laws. About 86 % of women in Delhi Tihar Jail are due to Dowry Law, so this Law is harming everyone including women.
Also Domestic Violence Act, 2005 should be reviewed, the organizations are asking. They say DV law in effect from Oct 2006 is totally one sided, and can be used to throw men, of joint family, out of their own houses. Even Supreme Court has said that DV Law is loosely drafted, and including houses of Relatives of husbands in the DV Law can lead to social chaos. A renowned Delhi High court Judge in his detailed judgment on DV Law has said this new Law has a perfect recipe for social disaster.
Sandeep Bhartia, president of Gender Human Rights Society (Regd.) says there are 40 new Law proposals for women in pipeline under influence from foreign countries funding radical and one sided women organizations. In order to prevent a fatherless society in creation and reinstate gender harmony, these new Law proposals should involve Judges also as Judges are difficult to be influenced by foreign funding. Also they have given written requests to the ministries to involve organizations fighting for preventing misuse of women protection laws in the Law drafting process by the ministry.
A third of children in some countries are already being harmed by fatherless families, let’s not let that happen in India. let’s stop well funded radical feminists by involving neutral organizations and Judges in the Law drafting process by the WCD ministry.
Looks like the war between well funded Radical Feminists organizations and others non funded organizations is just beginning, we should tread this path carefully for the betterment of society .
Ministry of Women and child development is currently in the process of talking to organizations fighting to stop misuse of Dowry and other women protection Laws. Some of these groups are demanding that Section 498a, Indian Penal Code (Dowry Law) should be applicable only to husbands and not to his relatives; also it should be made non - cognizable so that arrests are made only after investigations. Recently Gender Human Rights Society Regd. was called on 1st Aug, and on 18th Aug MASI (Mothers and sisters Initiative Regd.) a women organization fighting for preventing misuse of women protection Laws is invited.
Some foreign (UNAID) funded Women organizations are writing to ministry that ministry should not talk to men organizations for reasons best known to them. They do not want a balanced family system to exist in India as it is the greatest impediment to their impeachment policies aimed at large scale destruction of Indian society and culture. Whereas non funded organizations like Gender Human Rights society Regd. strongly say the demand that ministry should not talk to men is absurd, and a foreign trick to harm India. Marriage is a social institution run by both men and women and hence the views of both the sides need to be taken into due consideration.
With 1 in 6 persons in Delhi alone likely to face 498a (Dowry LAW) complaint, the arrest without investigation, non Bailable can lead to mass misuse of law and legal terrorism unleashed on them. A significant population is already suffering, and all over India non funded organizations are being formed to amend this Law as the government has turned its blind eye and deaf ear to the sufferings of lacs of people suffering from misuse of dowry related and other women protection laws. About 86 % of women in Delhi Tihar Jail are due to Dowry Law, so this Law is harming everyone including women.
Also Domestic Violence Act, 2005 should be reviewed, the organizations are asking. They say DV law in effect from Oct 2006 is totally one sided, and can be used to throw men, of joint family, out of their own houses. Even Supreme Court has said that DV Law is loosely drafted, and including houses of Relatives of husbands in the DV Law can lead to social chaos. A renowned Delhi High court Judge in his detailed judgment on DV Law has said this new Law has a perfect recipe for social disaster.
Sandeep Bhartia, president of Gender Human Rights Society (Regd.) says there are 40 new Law proposals for women in pipeline under influence from foreign countries funding radical and one sided women organizations. In order to prevent a fatherless society in creation and reinstate gender harmony, these new Law proposals should involve Judges also as Judges are difficult to be influenced by foreign funding. Also they have given written requests to the ministries to involve organizations fighting for preventing misuse of women protection laws in the Law drafting process by the ministry.
A third of children in some countries are already being harmed by fatherless families, let’s not let that happen in India. let’s stop well funded radical feminists by involving neutral organizations and Judges in the Law drafting process by the WCD ministry.
Looks like the war between well funded Radical Feminists organizations and others non funded organizations is just beginning, we should tread this path carefully for the betterment of society .
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Retrospective Clause in DV - Strategy
Well guys the retrospectiveness of DV has been a controversial topic of late. And the law being silent about it, the judiciary uses it to its own whims and fancies most of the times which are biased against men. Alleged acts of violence committed prior to 26th Oct 2006, the day the devilish DV law came in effect, are made part of petition and cases are getting registered.
But retrospectiveness in law is a serious issue and allowing retrospective matters in admittance of cases can have serious implications. As technological advances follows Murphy’s rule, newer dangers are also getting exposed and newer legal provisions can also come into effect. What was legal now can be illegal later, so do we book all those persons who committed a hitherto legal, but hence illegal action deemed as offense? Rationally and logically, No.
Coming back to DV, prior to it being enacted, calling names to wives was not an offense and some husband might have called his wife with some name, either out of love and affection or in a fit of anger, which even the wife must have done. But since DV outlines it as an offense only for the husband, allowing retrospective clause in DV law, all wives can book their husbands under DV and 100 % marriages will break. So retrospective clause is not healthy from a social and a futuristic standpoint of legal consideration.
Again arguing that DV does not attract penal consequences and the same arise only when protection order is violated and that offense will not be retrospective, then it must be remembered that in first place, case should not have registered, so no protection order should have been passed. So no possibility of commission of offense if retrospective clause is not defined for DV. But since the court has allowed it, it is also an equal party to the offense and should share the penalty!!! What an absurdity?
http://judis.nic.in/chennai/qrydisp.asp?tfnm=13665
Hence taking a cue from the above judgment and using the aforesaid logic, we can develop a strong petition to challenge retrospectiveness of DV and challenge any such summons under 397 CrPC and bring the case to a halt.
But retrospectiveness in law is a serious issue and allowing retrospective matters in admittance of cases can have serious implications. As technological advances follows Murphy’s rule, newer dangers are also getting exposed and newer legal provisions can also come into effect. What was legal now can be illegal later, so do we book all those persons who committed a hitherto legal, but hence illegal action deemed as offense? Rationally and logically, No.
Coming back to DV, prior to it being enacted, calling names to wives was not an offense and some husband might have called his wife with some name, either out of love and affection or in a fit of anger, which even the wife must have done. But since DV outlines it as an offense only for the husband, allowing retrospective clause in DV law, all wives can book their husbands under DV and 100 % marriages will break. So retrospective clause is not healthy from a social and a futuristic standpoint of legal consideration.
Again arguing that DV does not attract penal consequences and the same arise only when protection order is violated and that offense will not be retrospective, then it must be remembered that in first place, case should not have registered, so no protection order should have been passed. So no possibility of commission of offense if retrospective clause is not defined for DV. But since the court has allowed it, it is also an equal party to the offense and should share the penalty!!! What an absurdity?
http://judis.nic.in/chennai/qrydisp.asp?tfnm=13665
Hence taking a cue from the above judgment and using the aforesaid logic, we can develop a strong petition to challenge retrospectiveness of DV and challenge any such summons under 397 CrPC and bring the case to a halt.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Anti, Pro and Neutral
On a barefoot analysis, we get three kinds of people to deal with,
1) Anti people, who are staunch male haters and always portray women as victims aka the Feminists,
2) The pro people who understand the intentions of feminists and blatantly oppose them, and are mostly feminists hit by feminism and converted to the other extreme of the bandwidth aka the SIFFIANS, and
3) The neutral people who mostly live in a dream world designed by the anti ones and continue to believe women are victims.
We need to have different techniques to deal with all the three categories. Feminist often feign ignorance and bliss about women being perpetrators of violence and at the back side keep on spreading the poison in the society with the help of the unfortunate power lobby that they enjoy. When confronted with the poisoning it is again the same old technique they apply, put allegations on the confronter and allow him to defend.
We have to very careful in that. Not to fall into the allegations trap and keep bashing them till they are finished or converted. Stronger souls will have to be finished, weaker ones we can convert to our side and strengthen ourselves in both the scenarios.
Neutral people are also anti per se as they mostly believe what feminists say and even if they seem somewhat convinced when we give the statistics to them, they have the ever hanging historical background, that girls were always harassed and subdued in the past and blah blah blah; again the credit goes to feminists for the same.
For neutral people we will need data not only to show them the other side, harassed men, but also how women can be harmful and real challenge is converting the neutral people. The day we can reach out effortlessly to the neutral people and make them pros, we will have the mass with us. Today as the mass is not with us, only those getting converted to pros with a stroke of misfortune coming to us, a silent wish is for the misuse to increase so that we can gather amass.
But morally and ethically this technique should be despised as it takes to break an entire family to get one pro. Bad deal I would say. Rather having gained 4 years of experience we should now target to methods of converting neutral to pros and finishing the anti ones.
1) Anti people, who are staunch male haters and always portray women as victims aka the Feminists,
2) The pro people who understand the intentions of feminists and blatantly oppose them, and are mostly feminists hit by feminism and converted to the other extreme of the bandwidth aka the SIFFIANS, and
3) The neutral people who mostly live in a dream world designed by the anti ones and continue to believe women are victims.
We need to have different techniques to deal with all the three categories. Feminist often feign ignorance and bliss about women being perpetrators of violence and at the back side keep on spreading the poison in the society with the help of the unfortunate power lobby that they enjoy. When confronted with the poisoning it is again the same old technique they apply, put allegations on the confronter and allow him to defend.
We have to very careful in that. Not to fall into the allegations trap and keep bashing them till they are finished or converted. Stronger souls will have to be finished, weaker ones we can convert to our side and strengthen ourselves in both the scenarios.
Neutral people are also anti per se as they mostly believe what feminists say and even if they seem somewhat convinced when we give the statistics to them, they have the ever hanging historical background, that girls were always harassed and subdued in the past and blah blah blah; again the credit goes to feminists for the same.
For neutral people we will need data not only to show them the other side, harassed men, but also how women can be harmful and real challenge is converting the neutral people. The day we can reach out effortlessly to the neutral people and make them pros, we will have the mass with us. Today as the mass is not with us, only those getting converted to pros with a stroke of misfortune coming to us, a silent wish is for the misuse to increase so that we can gather amass.
But morally and ethically this technique should be despised as it takes to break an entire family to get one pro. Bad deal I would say. Rather having gained 4 years of experience we should now target to methods of converting neutral to pros and finishing the anti ones.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Recognition of women’s rights on Women’s Rights Equality Day August 26, 2008
To,
<>
Sub: Recognition of women’s rights on Women’s Rights Equality Day August 26, 2008
Respected Sir / Madam,
On the occasion of Women’s Rights Equality Day we would like to draw your attention towards a topic gaining momentum in all strata, be it the media, society, or the legislative or executive environment - the ‘Wide and Rampant misuse of Women Protection Laws vide section 498A Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 leading to mass destruction of the social fabric and familial system of India. It’s a pity to note that this destruction of families is happening under the patronage of the Indian Legal System in the barb and paradoxical veil of “Women Empowerment and Protection”.
Although drafted with the sanest of intentions; to provide women with security in a marriage, of late, due to the large number of false cases making their way to courts, the protector’s shield has become the assassin’s weapon. The women NGOs also, who are supposed to be working as watchdogs, have turned into bloodhounds by discriminating between women related to husbands and wives and failing to recognize, empathize and redress the grievances of those fateful mothers and sisters who have been through the ordeal of seeing their son and brother suffering at the hands of an unjust and almost defunct legal system.
Save Indian Family Foundation, an international network of individuals and NGOs, is working for promotion of Gender Equality and Family Harmony, makes a pleading before your Excellency/good office on behalf of the bereaved and beleaguered mothers and sisters, victimized under false allegations of dowry harassment by their daughters –in – law and their advisors/parents, to kindly look into this matter. One complaint from the daughter –in – law lands the whole family including ailing senior citizens, minor children, as well as pregnant women behind bars and ruins their life in a whiff of a moment. All this happens without investigation and in most of the cases, hefty ransoms are demanded to settle the case.
As per National Crime Records Bureau, in the last 4 years, (2004 – 2007), 1, 20, 645 innocent women have been arrested without investigation / trial under 498A cases.
1) Is this women empowerment- that on an unverified complaint of one woman, three women are imprisoned (on an average) and deemed “Guilty until proven innocent”?
2) Umpteen numbers of cases have been found where the girls’ side, filing such complaints were found to be hiding vital facts about the girl and they in fact file these cases when the hidden facts(affairs, diseases, unnatural tendencies and preferences, etc.) are exposed. Has 498A been designed to seek revenge from and harass husband’s family legally?
3) Is the pain of a mother / sister less when she loses a son / brother than when she loses a daughter / sister?
4) As per suicide statistics provided by National Crime Records Bureau, for the years 2005 and 2006, close to 52, 483 and 55, 452 married men, respectively, have committed suicide as opposed to 28, 188 and 29, 869 married women. But yet there is no law to protect our brothers and sons. Why?
5) According to a report by Center for Social Research, there is only 2 % conviction in 498a cases, which means the law is misused to the tune of 98 % and yet it has not been scrapped. This clearly shows the inaction of the government and the apathy meted out to men and their family members, be it a man or a woman in India.
Today on Women’s Rights Equality Day we demand that,
1) Mothers and sisters of men too are given equal status and their grievances as women are also heard and redressed by State Women Commissions as well as National Commission for Women and the Women and Child Development Ministry.
2) We demand that all cases registered under 498A be properly investigated by a police officer of the level of DCP before making any arrests or registering any complaint the police has written permission from the DCP- in compliance with 1994 Supreme Court Judgment 1994 AIR 1349 SCC (4) 260 Joginder Kumar vs. UOI. It is to be understood that 498a is a serious criminal offense and registering a criminal offense against any person without investigation can lead to serious degradation of the person’s social reputation and irreparable damage to life and career, apart from unfathomable human rights violation and wastage of governmental resources and hence public’s money.
3) Such acts need strong condemnation and the perpetrators of false cases need to be severely punished as they are maligning the system and blocking the path of justice for genuine victims. The State should initiate prosecution suo motu against those found to be misusing laws affecting families.
Gender Equality cannot come by way of Gender Discrimination and stereotyped, anachronous and generalised assumptions, which can only help to undermine the spirit and definition of any law. Taking the statements of the girl’s side as “Gospel Truth” reflects sheer lack of jurisprudence and grave inefficiency in implementation of laws on the government’s part, which needs to be rectified with immediate effect.
<
Sub: Recognition of women’s rights on Women’s Rights Equality Day August 26, 2008
Respected Sir / Madam,
On the occasion of Women’s Rights Equality Day we would like to draw your attention towards a topic gaining momentum in all strata, be it the media, society, or the legislative or executive environment - the ‘Wide and Rampant misuse of Women Protection Laws vide section 498A Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 leading to mass destruction of the social fabric and familial system of India. It’s a pity to note that this destruction of families is happening under the patronage of the Indian Legal System in the barb and paradoxical veil of “Women Empowerment and Protection”.
Although drafted with the sanest of intentions; to provide women with security in a marriage, of late, due to the large number of false cases making their way to courts, the protector’s shield has become the assassin’s weapon. The women NGOs also, who are supposed to be working as watchdogs, have turned into bloodhounds by discriminating between women related to husbands and wives and failing to recognize, empathize and redress the grievances of those fateful mothers and sisters who have been through the ordeal of seeing their son and brother suffering at the hands of an unjust and almost defunct legal system.
Save Indian Family Foundation, an international network of individuals and NGOs, is working for promotion of Gender Equality and Family Harmony, makes a pleading before your Excellency/good office on behalf of the bereaved and beleaguered mothers and sisters, victimized under false allegations of dowry harassment by their daughters –in – law and their advisors/parents, to kindly look into this matter. One complaint from the daughter –in – law lands the whole family including ailing senior citizens, minor children, as well as pregnant women behind bars and ruins their life in a whiff of a moment. All this happens without investigation and in most of the cases, hefty ransoms are demanded to settle the case.
As per National Crime Records Bureau, in the last 4 years, (2004 – 2007), 1, 20, 645 innocent women have been arrested without investigation / trial under 498A cases.
1) Is this women empowerment- that on an unverified complaint of one woman, three women are imprisoned (on an average) and deemed “Guilty until proven innocent”?
2) Umpteen numbers of cases have been found where the girls’ side, filing such complaints were found to be hiding vital facts about the girl and they in fact file these cases when the hidden facts(affairs, diseases, unnatural tendencies and preferences, etc.) are exposed. Has 498A been designed to seek revenge from and harass husband’s family legally?
3) Is the pain of a mother / sister less when she loses a son / brother than when she loses a daughter / sister?
4) As per suicide statistics provided by National Crime Records Bureau, for the years 2005 and 2006, close to 52, 483 and 55, 452 married men, respectively, have committed suicide as opposed to 28, 188 and 29, 869 married women. But yet there is no law to protect our brothers and sons. Why?
5) According to a report by Center for Social Research, there is only 2 % conviction in 498a cases, which means the law is misused to the tune of 98 % and yet it has not been scrapped. This clearly shows the inaction of the government and the apathy meted out to men and their family members, be it a man or a woman in India.
Today on Women’s Rights Equality Day we demand that,
1) Mothers and sisters of men too are given equal status and their grievances as women are also heard and redressed by State Women Commissions as well as National Commission for Women and the Women and Child Development Ministry.
2) We demand that all cases registered under 498A be properly investigated by a police officer of the level of DCP before making any arrests or registering any complaint the police has written permission from the DCP- in compliance with 1994 Supreme Court Judgment 1994 AIR 1349 SCC (4) 260 Joginder Kumar vs. UOI. It is to be understood that 498a is a serious criminal offense and registering a criminal offense against any person without investigation can lead to serious degradation of the person’s social reputation and irreparable damage to life and career, apart from unfathomable human rights violation and wastage of governmental resources and hence public’s money.
3) Such acts need strong condemnation and the perpetrators of false cases need to be severely punished as they are maligning the system and blocking the path of justice for genuine victims. The State should initiate prosecution suo motu against those found to be misusing laws affecting families.
Gender Equality cannot come by way of Gender Discrimination and stereotyped, anachronous and generalised assumptions, which can only help to undermine the spirit and definition of any law. Taking the statements of the girl’s side as “Gospel Truth” reflects sheer lack of jurisprudence and grave inefficiency in implementation of laws on the government’s part, which needs to be rectified with immediate effect.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Women Protection vs. Women Empowerment
Alimony in divorces is a serious issue these days. Huge alimonies have stripped men of their finances in the West and this trend is slowly catching in India as well with the growing number of divorces. Recent studies in Mumbai showed that 40 % of marriages end in divorce. In Delhi, every day on an average 10 divorce cases are filed. And in majority of these cases men are ordered to pay alimony as they say alimony in divorce is a positive step towards “Women Empowerment” by making them financially independent. But alimony as a provision in divorce is despicable and subject to serious condemnation for many reasons underlined here,
1) Arranged Marriage in India is a communal decision and takes place as a result of the involvement of society elders, common friends and the parents of both the boy and the girl. Hence when the relation fails to work and ends in a divorce, the husband should not be the only one paying.
2) If it is a love marriage then both the adults are equally responsible and the man should not be the only one paying the price.
3) Alimony is the biggest motivator for women to file a divorce and stop making attempts to save the marriage. Also parents of girls, when they see the marriage is not working, encourage their daughters to move towards divorce in lieu of hefty alimony.
4) Due to the overwhelming and impending burden of alimony, married men in India continue to suffer in a bad marriage and refrain from buying a costly piece of paper called, ‘Divorce’ which results in higher stress levels for men and also higher suicide rates among Indian married men.
In line with the feminism that created waves in the 70s in the West, harsh, lopsided and severely anti – male laws were drafted in India in the name of Women Protection. And at the same time alimony was encouraged in the name of Women Empowerment. Today we have six laws quintessentially achieving the same objective of Women Protection and Women Empowerment in tandem.
But the basic ideology where the law makers, the society living with those laws and the media sleeping in deep slumber, not to protest against the loopholes in the laws and their implementation, fluttered is that, Protection and Empowerment can never go hand in hand. We don’t need to protect an empowered lot, hence when alimony was already provided for Women Empowerment, Women Protection was a redundancy. And if that was not the case then alimony as a means to Empower Women has failed miserably and has rather proved as a “Marriage Breaker” as reflected in a recent statement by renowned Supreme Court justice Arijit Pasayath that the Hindu Marriage Act has broken more families than joining them.
The statements seems more than apt. Though Hindu Marriage Act has provisions for saving as well breaking marriage, the one breaking marriage is more famous i.e. divorce. The section for saving marriage, Section 9 – Restitution of Conjugal Rights is a dead letter section of the Hindu Marriage Act which quintessentially trivializes the Indian culture of saving marriage, but sadly enough it is not only a lesser known section, it is non – executable as well, which means the court cannot enforce an order passed in this section.
Due to such reasons divorces are increasing day by day and the institution of marriage is slowly dying out. The government which barely manages to gather oxygen enough to survive in wake of recent turmoil and power tussle at the center has little / no time to look into this matter, impending over the society as a social catastrophe. The society, whose very existence is subject to strict proof with everyone in the society considering everyone else other than oneself as the society, with its paradoxical veil of technological advancement conveniently, chooses to ignore the victims of a bad marriage. The media, whose hunger for sensationalism is self – feeding, considers only the women as humans, raising its voice for women at every sneeze and whiff, is simply catalyzing a gender divide in the society and nothing else.
In view of the all the above contentions and discussions, yet it remains a question, whether Empowerment and Protection can go hand in hand? Let the stalwarts answer this.
1) Arranged Marriage in India is a communal decision and takes place as a result of the involvement of society elders, common friends and the parents of both the boy and the girl. Hence when the relation fails to work and ends in a divorce, the husband should not be the only one paying.
2) If it is a love marriage then both the adults are equally responsible and the man should not be the only one paying the price.
3) Alimony is the biggest motivator for women to file a divorce and stop making attempts to save the marriage. Also parents of girls, when they see the marriage is not working, encourage their daughters to move towards divorce in lieu of hefty alimony.
4) Due to the overwhelming and impending burden of alimony, married men in India continue to suffer in a bad marriage and refrain from buying a costly piece of paper called, ‘Divorce’ which results in higher stress levels for men and also higher suicide rates among Indian married men.
In line with the feminism that created waves in the 70s in the West, harsh, lopsided and severely anti – male laws were drafted in India in the name of Women Protection. And at the same time alimony was encouraged in the name of Women Empowerment. Today we have six laws quintessentially achieving the same objective of Women Protection and Women Empowerment in tandem.
But the basic ideology where the law makers, the society living with those laws and the media sleeping in deep slumber, not to protest against the loopholes in the laws and their implementation, fluttered is that, Protection and Empowerment can never go hand in hand. We don’t need to protect an empowered lot, hence when alimony was already provided for Women Empowerment, Women Protection was a redundancy. And if that was not the case then alimony as a means to Empower Women has failed miserably and has rather proved as a “Marriage Breaker” as reflected in a recent statement by renowned Supreme Court justice Arijit Pasayath that the Hindu Marriage Act has broken more families than joining them.
The statements seems more than apt. Though Hindu Marriage Act has provisions for saving as well breaking marriage, the one breaking marriage is more famous i.e. divorce. The section for saving marriage, Section 9 – Restitution of Conjugal Rights is a dead letter section of the Hindu Marriage Act which quintessentially trivializes the Indian culture of saving marriage, but sadly enough it is not only a lesser known section, it is non – executable as well, which means the court cannot enforce an order passed in this section.
Due to such reasons divorces are increasing day by day and the institution of marriage is slowly dying out. The government which barely manages to gather oxygen enough to survive in wake of recent turmoil and power tussle at the center has little / no time to look into this matter, impending over the society as a social catastrophe. The society, whose very existence is subject to strict proof with everyone in the society considering everyone else other than oneself as the society, with its paradoxical veil of technological advancement conveniently, chooses to ignore the victims of a bad marriage. The media, whose hunger for sensationalism is self – feeding, considers only the women as humans, raising its voice for women at every sneeze and whiff, is simply catalyzing a gender divide in the society and nothing else.
In view of the all the above contentions and discussions, yet it remains a question, whether Empowerment and Protection can go hand in hand? Let the stalwarts answer this.
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